Einladung zum Vortrag
Melting Hitler‘s “Heart of Stone”:
Gandhi‘s Attitude to the Holocaust
Shimon Lev (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem –
The Department of Comparative Religions)
17. Juni 2014, 12.15
Attemsgasse 8/DG, 8010 Graz
Melting Hitler‘s “Heart of Stone”: Gandhi‘s Attitude to the Holocaust
Shimon Lev (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem –
The Department of Comparative Religions)
On November 1938 Gandhi published an article about the two questions
that most preoccupied the Jewish world, Nazi Germany and the conflict in
Palestine. Gandhi presented his rather demanding suggestion to the European Jews to adopt his Satygraha (Non- Violence) strategy in order to resist
the Nazi type of extreme racist violence. This harsh demand raised a wide
variety of responses among the Jewish intellectual community like Martin
Buber‘s and Judea Magnes.
The Holocaust raises the question of whether non-violence in the emphatic
sense in Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy has any meaning in the confrontation with extremely malicious doctrines. The talk will deal with Gandhi’s attitude towards Nazism as a doctrine and present Gandhi’s moralism, which
is the basis of his reflection on the kind of action Jews of Europe should
take in an extremely vulnerable situation. Finally it will also discuss the similarities and the differences between „kiddush Hashem“ (martyrdom) and
Satyagraha and will refer to Gandhi‘s strange silence and his only
comment after the Holocaust, when the extant of it was revealed.
Shimon Lev (1962) is currently completing his Doctoral Studies in the Hebrew University on: The cultural and political meeting between the Jewish
world and the Indian World – A comparative research in the light of the
development of the Indian and Zionist national movements. Recently his
last book „Soulmates : The Story of Mahatma Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach“ (2012) was published by Orient BlackSwan Publishing House, India.
His article „Melting Hitler‘s ‚heart of stone‘ – Gandhi‘s Attitude to the Holocaust“, was published in The Journal of Judeo Indo Studies (Edit Nathan
Katz, Vol 13 Autumn 2013).
Information:
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Centrum für Jüdische Studien
Heinrichstraße 22/III, 8010 Graz
[email protected]
juedischestudien.uni-graz.at
Eine Veranstaltung vom Centrum für Jüdische Studien der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Impressum: Herausgeber: Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Centrum für Jüdische Studien © 2014
Artwork: Roman Klug, Universität Graz